Pontiac transport concept

Most of that year's concepts were from General Motors, with a But the functional Pontiac Trans Sport van of was a big hit, looking a lot.

From GM Heritage Center: In , the new generation of Pontiac concept vehicles began with the introduction of what many believe is still one.

The car at the center of this story is the Pontiac Trans Sport. The buying public first got to see the Trans Sport as a concept in and the.

The concept car concept is translated as "the idea of a car". This is a kind of prototype car, which tests people's reactions to new technologies being introduced, design solutions, etc. In its original form, prototypes are never launched into mass production.

No all-wheel drive option is offered. Controls for the CRT were located in a fixed pod at the center of the steering wheel. As Pontiac intended, a production version of the Trans Sport was released for the model year. That's a plus for the Trans Sport and its clones, because GM's 4-speed automatics are the smoothest in the business.

Pontiac Trans Sport - Wikipedia

Production of the Trans Sport was ended in The Trans Sport and its sibling models were produced by General Motors to compete with the Chrysler minivans. Because the larger Chevrolet Astro and the GMC Safari "mini-vans" were based on a body-on-frame , rear wheel drive truck platform, they appealed to a different segment of the market and did not put a significant dent in Chrysler 's almost complete dominance of the minivan market in the late eighties.

First shown to the public in , the Pontiac Trans Sport concept car was extremely well received. It featured futuristic styling, individually removable bucket seats with built-in stereo speakers, a gull-wing rear passenger door and extensive use of glass including a glass-paneled roof as well as many other "dream car" features such as a built-in Nintendo Entertainment System.

Based on the warm reception the concept vehicle received, the Pontiac Trans Sport was approved for production in However, as is often the case, the styling and features showcased on the concept did not make the translation to the mass-produced edition.

The gullwing door was deemed too expensive to produce and would probably have hit overhead garage doors in suburban garages. The glass roof was too heavy and too expensive, so the resultant production vehicle made-do with high-gloss black painted panels for the roof to suggest the glass canopy the concept sported.

Chevrolet and Oldsmobile were also given production vehicles based on the Trans Sport in order to cover the widest possible range of potential customers. It was intended that the Lumina APV would be the value-priced version, The Trans Sport would net the more sport- and style-oriented buyers, and the Oldsmobile Silhouette would be the minivan for the premium market.

The Trans Sport, as well as its badge engineered variants from Chevrolet and Oldsmobile, rode on the U-body platform and were constructed from a galvanized steel space frame , featuring dent and rust resistant polymer plastic body panels on the side and a galvanized steel roof.

This construction set up was also used on the Pontiac Fiero as well as vehicles from GM's Saturn division. The Trans Sport had three seating options. The base models had standard seating for five, with three, 35lb easily removable bucket seats called modular seats in place of a bench seat usually used in minivans. Available on any Trans Sport was seating for seven, which consisted of 5-modular seats covering the rear two rows of seating.

Included with the level ride package, which utilized a compressor and air-pressurized rear shock absorbers to maintain vehicle height regardless of load, was a control panel and air hose kit that allowed the vehicle to be used to inflate tires, air mattresses, sporting equipment and the like.

In , GM debuted the first power side sliding door in a passenger vehicle. Due to quality control problems, the option never became available in production models until For the and model years traction control was available with the engine option.